AFL-CIO Blog

  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Massachusetts AFL-CIO Calls on Governor to Ensure Budget Supports Working Families
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Massachusetts AFL-CIO Calls on Governor to Ensure Budget Supports Working Families Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO, led by President Steven Tolman (TCU/IAM), testified before the state’s Joint Ways and Means Committee to express concerns about the budget submitted by the governor. “This budget must support workers who have been and will continue to report to jobs outside of their homes to ensure that the public has access to the goods and services that our society has finally deemed ‘essential,’” Tolman said. “We must also ensure that unemployed and underemployed workers who are struggling to make ends meet have access to strong social safety nets that allow them to stay in their homes, maintain their healthcare coverage, and keep food on the table.” Among the specific concerns are provisions in the budget that would limit sick time for state employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, reduce funds for workforce development and weaken public bidding laws. Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 04/08/2021 - 09:32 Tags: COVID-19, Community Service — Apr 8
  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: New York State AFL-CIO Backs ‘Fair Share’ Revenue Raisers
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: New York State AFL-CIO Backs ‘Fair Share’ Revenue Raisers Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. New York labor and faith leaders joined together last week for a press conference in support of the strategic “fair share” revenue raisers in the New York State Assembly and Senate one-house budgets and are urging their adoption in the final budget. The groups are pushing the state to look past the short-term relief from the federal government and move toward sustainable revenue streams that ask the wealthy to pay their fair share and that will preserve public services once federal aid is exhausted. According to Mario Cilento (TNG-CWA), president of the New York State AFL-CIO, “The federal aid coming into New York state will only do so much—it will help us for about the next two years, but after that, the state will be addressing budget deficits on its own. These ‘fair share’ revenue raisers would affect a tiny portion of individuals in our state while ensuring we don't harm our health care system and still help fund education, state services and our local governments into the future.” Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 04/07/2021 - 09:26 Tags: COVID-19, Community Service — Apr 7
  • Washington Teachers’ Union President Elizabeth Davis Passes
    Washington Teachers’ Union President Elizabeth Davis Passes Chris Garlock/Union City The Washington, D.C., metro area labor movement lost one of its most outspoken leaders Sunday night when Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) President Elizabeth Davis died in a car crash. Davis had been “at the forefront of public education advocacy and reform, leading the WTU’s transformation into a social justice, solution-driven organization dedicated to advancing and promoting quality education for all children,” WTU said in a release Monday morning. Davis worked hard at “improving teaching and learning conditions and aggressively amplifying the voice of teachers in the dialogue around issues of teaching and learning,” the union added. “We are confident that her legacy will continue to shape the WTU as well as education across the district.” “Elizabeth Davis fought every single day, not just for her members, but for all the city’s students and parents,” said Metro Washington Council (MWC) President Dyana Forester. “As a D.C. parent myself, and also as a lifelong city resident and labor activist, Sister Davis was a constant inspiration to me and to so many others. The thoughts and prayers of the Metro Washington Council go out to her family, her union and to all whose lives were touched by Liz. Her loss is shared by the entire local labor community, and we shall carry on her legacy of battling for justice even as we mourn her passing.”  Davis was a longtime member of the MWC’s Executive Board. The first time Davis stood up to D.C. school administrators was in the 1960s, The Washington Post reported. “Davis, then a teenager, staged a walkout at Eastern High to protest the lack of African American history and culture in her school’s curriculum. Hundreds of students joined her. And it worked, she said. The curriculum changed.” “That was the beginning,” Davis told the Post in an interview in February. “It was exciting. It was exhilarating. We were organizing.” This post originally appeared at Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO. Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/06/2021 - 16:09 — Apr 6
  • Solidarity Works: What Working People Are Doing This Week
    Solidarity Works: What Working People Are Doing This Week Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week. A. Philip Randolph Institute: Actors' Equity: AFGE: AFSCME: Alliance for Retired Americans: Amalgamated Transit Union: American Federation of Musicians: American Federation of Teachers: American Postal Workers Union: Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance: Association of Flight Attendants-CWA: Boilermakers: Bricklayers: Coalition of Labor Union Women: Communications Workers of America: Department for Professional Employees: Electrical Workers: Fire Fighters: Heat and Frost Insulators: International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers: Ironworkers: Jobs With Justice: Labor Council for Latin American Advancement: Laborers: Machinists: Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association: Metal Trades Department: Mine Workers: Musical Artists: National Air Traffic Controllers Association: National Association of Letter Carriers: National Day Laborer Organizing Network: National Nurses United: National Taxi Workers Alliance: NFL Players Association: North America's Building Trades Unions: Office and Professional Employees: Painters and Allied Trades: Plasterers and Cement Masons: Professional Aviation Safety Specialists: Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union: SAG-AFTRA: Solidarity Center: The NewsGuild-CWA: Theatrical Stage Employees: Transport Workers Union: Transportation Trades Department: UAW: Union Veterans Council: UNITE HERE: United Food and Commercial Workers: United Steelworkers: United Students Against Sweatshops: Utility Workers: Writers Guild of America, East: Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/06/2021 - 15:28 — Apr 6
  • 'We Have to Move Now': The Working People Weekly List
    'We Have to Move Now': The Working People Weekly List Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s the latest edition of the Working People Weekly List. ‘We Have to Move Now’: Biden Details His $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan: “Mr. Biden was introduced by a union worker who deals with the electrical grid. Mike Fiore, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 29 and an employee of Duquesne Light, said the plan would mean a lot to workers who are ready to retool plants and revitalize the middle class. ‘The [plan] is directed at communities like mine. It is about opening up opportunities, revitalizing local businesses and saving jobs,’ Mr. Fiore said. ‘For decades, Pennsylvania was a global leader in manufacturing and good union jobs. It can be that way again.’” ATI Workers Go on Strike After Negotiations Break Down: “Roughly 1,300 workers at Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) represented by the United Steelworkers (USW) union went on strike at 7 a.m. Tuesday after negotiators failed to reach a contract settlement. USW International Vice President David McCall, who chairs the talks, accused the metals giant of unfair labor practices and trying to force workers into accepting unnecessary concessions. ‘After years of loyalty, hard work and sacrifice, workers deserve more respect and consideration than ATI has shown at the table,’ Mr. McCall said in a statement Friday. ‘We will continue to bargain in good faith, and we strongly urge ATI to start doing the same.’” Why Big Tech Shouldn’t Be Scared of Unions: “At a time when so many divisions rip Americans apart, from income inequality and wealth disparities to opportunity gaps and ethnic, religious and cultural differences, increased union membership would help to heal America by raising incomes, uniting workers and building trust just as it did in the decades following World War II, when the U.S. boasted the biggest per-capita middle class in the world. What better place to start than in the heart of America’s tech industry? It would help workers, industry and American society itself.” I Was Fired for Trying to Unionize My Workplace. I Want Congress to Pass the PRO Act So That Never Happens Again: “For around two years, my colleagues and I had been advocating together for better benefits—like health care and child care—and reasonable sales goals. We weren’t asking for the moon—we were asking for basic respect and fair treatment as we supported the military members and veterans who bank with PenFed. We felt that unless we did this organizing, there would be no reason for PenFed CEO James Schenck to improve working conditions and make real changes to how he ran his business.” EXPLAINER: What to Know About the Amazon Union Vote: “Nearly 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, are deciding whether they want to form a union, the biggest labor push in the online shopping giant’s history. The stakes are high for Amazon. The organizing in Bessemer could set off a chain reaction across its operations nationwide, with more workers rising up and demanding better working conditions. Meanwhile, labor advocates hope what’s happening in Bessemer could inspire workers beyond Amazon to form a union. But organizers face an uphill battle. Amazon, the second-largest private employer in the country, has a history of crushing unionizing efforts at its warehouses and its Whole Foods grocery stores.” Walsh Heads Already Active Labor Department: “‘Millions of workers still do not have the strong COVID-19 protections they need to be safe at work,’ declared Rebecca Reindel, AFL-CIO safety and health director. ‘Marty Walsh’s strong leadership will be needed to urgently issue a strong, comprehensive OSHA COVID-19 emergency temporary standard to set workplace safety rules, accompanied by strong enforcement to ensure workers are protected.’” ‘It Rescued Our Entire Plan Overnight.’ How Joe Biden Will Help Rockers Retire: “President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan will benefit, among other things, state and local governments, small businesses, people living in poverty and, it turns out, professional musicians hoping to retire at some point in their lives. Since musicians often work for many bosses, they fall under the purview of multi-employer pension plans—a pet cause of Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, who has been pushing to fix those types of pension plans for years. After years of introducing what was first called the Butch Lewis Act (named after an Ohio teamster), Brown worked to get his pension-salvaging plan into the American Rescue Plan.” What the ‘Invisible’ People Cleaning the Subway Want Riders to Know: “Cleaning the New York City subway has always been a dirty job. But when the pandemic hit last spring, it became even more challenging. When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered that trains be shut down overnight for cleaning, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) turned to contractors to help undertake the monumental task of scouring the trains in the nation’s largest transit system. The thousands of workers the contractors hired—largely low-income immigrants from Latin America—were envisioned as a stopgap measure, as MTA workers were falling ill and dying of the virus. At the same time, ridership and revenue had plummeted, and the agency found itself in an intense budget crunch.” Facing Backlash from Orlando Workers, HMSHost Is Rehiring Employees Laid Off During Pandemic: “After nine months waging an emotional campaign to get their jobs back, displaced restaurant workers from the Orlando International Airport celebrated a triumph: They’re being rehired. HMSHost, one of the country’s largest airport concessionaires, emailed former employees on Friday inviting them back, according to copies reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel. In the email, the company’s human resources department also announced a $2-per-hour wage increase and free monthly Lynx bus passes for returning employees.” Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/06/2021 - 10:40 — Apr 6